Hanoi: US Vice President Kamala Harris said on Thursday he raised issues of human rights violations and restrictions on political activism in his conversation with Vietnamese leaders this week, but did not offer indications of drill talks.
“We will not avoid difficult conversations.
Difficult conversations often must be owned with people you might have a partnership,” he said at a press conference in Hanoi on Thursday.
Harris said with Vietnam.
Leaders especially about the release of political dissidents , but it does not describe the results of the conversation.
Vietnam has faced criticism of the restrictions on freedom of expression and the press and the crackdown in those people consider political dissidents.
But Harris did not respond when asked why the US criticized China for the same violation, but was looking for partnerships Which is stronger with Vietnam.
His comments limited the trip a week to Southeast Asia where he met with high-ranking officials in Singapore and Vietnam in an effort to strengthen US involvement in the region’s influence of the Chinese counter there.
Harris launched a number of new US agreements and assistance for both countries in the area Including Cyberdefense cooperation with Saigon and Coro Navirus helped Vietnam, which struggled with a new surge in a virus and a low level of vaccination.
But on Thursday, he turned his attention to problems around civil liberties and human rights in Vietnam.
Harris participated in what his team billed as a “Changemakers’ event with activists working on LGBTQ rights and climate change.” It is very important that if we have to take the challenges we face that we do it collaborably, that we must empower leaders in each sector, including of course the government but community leaders, business leaders, civil society, if we have to maximize the resources we have collectively, “he said.
In his press conference, Harris also asked questions about the chaotic US exit from Afghanistan, but did not respond directly when asked how the US would evaluate the success of the evacuation mission.
When US officials have warned the possibility of terrorist threats to Americans who tried to leave the country through Kabul airport, Harris also ignored the question of whether Americans were safer now that the US had left the country.
While Harris has emphasized that his visit to Southeast Asia was intended to foster positive relations with countries in the region and expand US cooperation and involvement, he also increased Biden’s administrative rhetoric against China, issued a warning repeatedly to Beijing to end the marine disputed aggression South China.
“We need to find a way to suppress and raise pressure, frankly, in Beijing to comply with the United Nations Convention on Sea Law, and to challenge excessive maritime intimidation and claims,” ​​he said Wednesday dodge.
Harris avoided errors without texts that overshadowed abroad His first, to Guatemala and Mexico in the spring, where the declaration to the migrants “did not come” and defend from questions about their rejection to visit the Republican and Democratic borders.
Harris answered questions from reporter at various points of the trip, and sat down for the interview of expanded cable news.
In Asia, Harris still focused on his meeting with officials and Biden Administration Talking Points in China.
While questions about US withdrawal from Afghanistan dominated its first day in Singapore, Harris emphasized the same message delivered by President Joe Biden and his maid that the US must stay focused on evacuation, and not OK.
At home the trip, Harris will stop at the base with Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii to meet servicemembers.
Then he will change the focus on our politics at an event in the San Francisco region for Democratic Governor California Gavin Newsom, who faced withdrawal efforts.